He didn’t because he knew that this persistence was necessary. He knew too, beyond all doubt, that she would succeed. He did not expect her to succeed with a 25% probability that she would not; he knew the probability of success was absolute. So, watching her battle against gravity and the forces of nature meant watching her succeed, little by little, building the strength and skill to walk; a process more heart-warming than heart-wrenching.

So to goes many the entrepreneur: trying, “failing”, persisting, growing.  Battling the forces of nature and persevering in the face of uncertainty. Learning to be an entrepreneur is, obviously, quite different than learning to walk. But there is an important lesson that can be borrowed from the analogy. The child is surrounded by walkers – people proficient at the process. As an Entrepreneur you would be smart to adopt this method – surround yourself with business starters, those who have been successful and will be able to lend you support and confidence.

In Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati this is not hard to do. There are groups throughout our region that are open and generous with their guidance and support networks. Check websites for meetings of the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association, watch the news on the Cintrifuse and UpTech sites, thecircuit.net, Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, meetup.com/cincybusiness, cincytech; all of these provide resources and create an environment that encourages and enables entrepreneurial success. Invest your time with people who know how to succeed and believe that your struggles to learn the winning model for your company is a matter of when, not if.

Dr. Garcia described a new business venture he is developing with Dan Divelbiss, an environmental engineering graduate student from the University of Cincinnati, and Nate Wildes, an Assistant Brand Manager at the Eureka! Ranch International.  The new venture is an aquaponics business – think a fish tank that grows both fish and vegetables in one integrated, soilless system –  to be launched in Price Hill.  Dr. Garcia, Dan and Nate are collaborating with Diana Vakharia, Price Hill’s Director of Economic Development, on this project.  Diana happens to be a member of the core team that launched CiNBA.  Diana’s goal is to help launch an aquaponics business in Price Hill, so they can hire about 20 people from Price Hill to run the business, and then transition the business into an employee-owned operation.  Diana’s focus  helps create jobs and long-term wealth for the people of Price Hill using a model of economic development created by The Evergreen Cooperatives of Cleveland, Ohio

Dr. Garcia, explained that “…the aquaponics project serves as one way to help overcome the causes of concentrated disadvantage.”  All too often Dr. Garcia treats the consequences of concentrated disadvantage in the form of gunshot wounds to children.  As a natural problem solver and a highly skilled  surgeon, he realizes that treating the consequences of a problem never overcomes the underlying source of a problem.  He and the others are focused on understanding and attacking the sources of concentrated disadvantage from a systems-thinking perspective to improve the situation.

Would you like to get involved to bring the aquaponics business to life in Price Hill?  Dr. Garcia’s project needs   experienced business professionals and college students to help build and carry out a solid business model for this business venture.  If you would like to involved, watch these three videos and then contact the project (links are available on the www.cincyentre.com website:

1.  http://evergreencooperatives.com/ for a review of the Evergreen Cooperatives model;
2.  http://tinyurl.com/concdisadv to gain an understanding of concentrated disadvantage;
3.  http://tinyurl.com/RW-life-of-purpose to consider what you can do with what you’ve been given.

If these videos stir your interest, please connect with maitia@xavier.edu to find out how you can help.

Chance networking interactions can lead to great opportunities to expand your horizons. Not every interaction will be as fertile as my meeting with Cintrifuse. You will find the more you connect, the more likely you will discover favorable conditions to do great things.

Joe Carter’s Links

http://www.cintrifuse.com	https://www.facebook.com/GCINBA
http://evergreencooperatives.com/	http://www.eurekaranch.com/
http://www.pricehillwill.org/economic-development
Xavier Entrepreneurial Center http://www.xavier.edu/williams/centers/entrepreneurial-center/index.cfm

© 2013 http://www.cincyentre.com

Passionate startups are spreading like wildfire in the region due to the courage of entrepreneurs to gain self-awareness, take risks, and turn great ideas into great businesses like never before. Passionate entrepreneurs work on their ideas constantly and now they take action to launch their ventures fulltime.  Like entrepreneurs, the community has developed great ideas for enabling startups like UpTech and the Brandery to accelerate the next big ideas into reality.  These organizations are startups as well and provide many tools and programs for entrepreneurs to follow their dreams.  The empowerment of entrepreneurs manifests itself in the following ways:

• Exciting regional collaboration, the Ohio River is no longer the Ohio Ocean
• Young talent moving into (and back to) and staying in our region
• The great balance of exciting business opportunities and quality of life
• A thriving entrepreneur community in the Northern Kentucky / Greater Cincinnati.

Amazing things happen when you follow your dreams. Northern Kentucky University’s tag line says it all: “Dreamers welcome.”  When you welcome dreamers with open arms, give them the tools to succeed, there is an unparalleled power that only collective passion can bring.

Three essential characteristics make up the personality of a successful entrepreneur:

1)     Self-awareness:  Do I have what it takes to be an entreprenur? Successful entrepreneurs have done the hard work to become aware of their talents, gifts, strengths, and weaknesses.  They get clarity on what they want and what they don’t want.  Embarking on a journey to discover who you really are, will only pay dividends in your career and your relationships. Tools like Tom Rath’s book Strengths Finder and programs like Startup Weekend help you discover your inner entrepreneur

2)     Passion:  What do you love to do?  What activities do you engage in that causes you to lose all track of time?  Successful entrepreneurs often get criticized for working all the time, but they do not feel they are even working at all!  Ask a true dreamer about their passion and their eyes light up, enthusiasm erupts, and their conviction wins you over .

3)     A great idea: Do you have the next Google or Prius in your head? Highly self-aware and passionate entrepreneurs generate great ideas almost automatically and continuously.  They clearly see real-world problems and are driven to fix them. These passionate and self-aware entrepreneurs seem to see around corners and invent incredibly effective products and services to solve difficult and complex challenges.

If you have done the work to embark on the journey to self-awareness, discovered your passion, and have the next big idea, seek out the organizations that can help you make your great ideas come true. The Greater Cincinnati Venture Association website provides an inventory of the region’s entrepreneurial assets in their “Greater Cincinnati Entrepreneur Ecosystem” link. Although the Brandery’s application process closed on May 1^st, entreprneurs can appy online to UpTech, Northern Kentucky’s Startup Accelerator until May 24, 2013. Check out more links on this column’s website at http://www.cincyentre.com.

Startups rarely think about intellectual property protection because they believe that comes after the product is complete. These startups should consider a “lean” patent model that mirrors the lean start-up model and shares the same benefits of flexibility, low initial cost, and optimization. This works well for large and small companies to begin protecting their big ideas/.

File a Provisional Patent Application  

Provisional patent applications are cheap to file.  Really cheap.  The filing fee for a small entity (less than 500 employees) is only $125.  Provisional patent applications have fewer filing requirements than a “regular” patent application.  In theory, you can file a Keynote/Powerpoint presentation as a provisional patent application.

You can write most of it yourself.  A patent application is required to “enable” the technology that ultimately will be the subject of an issued patent.  This means that your application has to teach a person of “ordinary skill in the art” how to make and use your invention.  Much of this documentation already exists within your company and developed for other purposes, so pull it all together.  Then get an attorney to spend time reviewing the documentation to avoid filing errors.  Now have your attorney file it.  You are officially “patent pending”, which you may use in marketing materials, can help attract investment, and can slow competitors down.  Provisional applications are 100% confidential.

File More Provisional Patent Applications! Iterate!

A provisional patent application buys you one year from your filing date to file a “regular” utility patent application.  Most companies just wait the year and then file the utility application.  Don’t do that.  If your first provisional helped you get funding, then it’s worth cleaning up the first MVP application filing.  Have you added to the product? Add the new material to your previous filing and file another provisional.  Now you have multiple pending applications, which is even more impressive…it’s still only a $125 filing fee per provisional. You can file as many of these as you want and most entrepreneurs waste this opportunity.

The One Year Deadline…

So, when the one year deadline from your first provisional filing is upon you, do you file a bunch of expensive utility patent applications?  No!  You file one utility application that claims priority to all of your provisional applications.  Utility applications are more expensive to file, require claims, and have stricter requirements, but now you can capture your iterative design process, which mirrored your “lean” approach, in a single utility application.  And hopefully your robust patent portfolio already got you a little funding.

There is no “one size fits all” strategy. Exceptions, nuances and Murphy’s law mean you shouldn’t try to do it all yourself.  Work with a patent attorney that “gets it” and adjust the strategy to fit your business. The strategy you start with change several times in a year or two.  Adaptability and flexibility is important in intellectual property as well as your business.

Previously, I introduced the core elements of the entrepreneurship process: focus, environment, the entrepreneur, and the engagement/execution process. Even with a clear focus (product and services, customers and competition), an entrepreneur must continually assess an uncertain and changing environment (business, economic, legal, political, social, and technological factors).

Central to all of this is the entrepreneur.  That the entrepreneur must simultaneously wear multiple hats is legendary in the lore of new start-ups. With so many distractions, let’s take a closer look at how the entrepreneur applies concepts of creativity, lessons of leadership, and achieves clarity of communication.

Creativity.  It all begins with an idea.  At the turn of the 20^th Century, the dominant method for men to get a close shave was the straight edge, strop, whetstone, mug, brush, and soap.  Gillette envisioned a reusable steel blade and holder shaving system that did not need stropping or honing, that would give a clean, safe, shave at a fraction of the cost of going to a barber or the labor and time intensive system in use. The entrepreneur sees a problem, clarifies it, and seeks a solution. It is the entrepreneur’s creativity and innovation that provides the spark that ignites the beginning of change.  One of the greatest sources of creativity is seeking solutions to everyday problems.  It might be driven by new knowledge, technology, even changes in mood and meaning.

Leadership.  If there is one thing that sets entrepreneurs apart, it is their leadership in translating ideas into action and making things happen.  King Gillette initially was ahead of his time.  His solution, while innovative, was not immediately embraced. The engineers at MIT said it couldn’t be done.  Undaunted, he continued to pursue his vision for nearly six years, until another MIT educated machinist, William Nickerson, partnered with him to introduce the Gillette Safety Razor in 1903. It would have been easy to give up, but leadership is about overcoming obstacles, working with others to see and understand what needs to be done and how to do it.  The entrepreneur lives the classic definition of leadership: facilitating personal and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.

Communication.  As good as a creative solution to a problem might be, it is only as good as the entrepreneur’s ability to effectively communicate that idea.  This is one of the most perplexing challenges for most entrepreneurs. Often great innovators are not always the best communicators. The key is recognizing that there is always limited time available to clearly, concisely, and effectively present how the problem, solution, market opportunity all come together. It is tempting to talk tech, become immersed in the detail, and/or lose sight of your objectives.  When presenting a new business idea, I always advise my students to keep it clear, clean, and concise.  Moreover, you need to know your audience.  For example, while the core message remains crisp and customer centric, investors are going to want to know more about the return on their investment.

As important as these three tasks are to the launch of a new venture, they are equally essential to the ongoing growth and success of the business over the long-term. Gillette, for example, was one of the first entrepreneurs to recognize the need to continuously innovate products and services, provide ongoing leadership, and leverage the power of advertising by crafting a simple, compelling message for the consumer.  Entrepreneurs challenge traditional definitions of value and embrace market inefficiencies (they seek to make them more efficient).

Identifying, capturing, and taming ideas is never easy.  It is the entrepreneur that must be relentless in the pursuit of his or her idea.  The entrepreneur must recognize his or her own strengths and weaknesses and find the roles to which he or she is best suited.  In our next column, we will explore how the entrepreneur engages in the process of opportunity recognition, acquiring needed resources, and assembling a team.  Till next time, all the best for continued entrepreneurial success!

Entrepreneurship has a lot in common with baseball. In both a lone leader steps to the plate with intense pressure to succeed, a team is counting on you to get a hit, and even a 33% success rate is world-class. Unfortunately, too many rookie batters—and entrepreneurs—fail by swinging for the fences instead of legging out a single.

Startup founders get excited about billion-dollar stories such as Facebook, Google, Instagram and Groupon. These companies seemed to come out of nowhere with a killer idea, and we marvel at the fame and wealth that were created in the blink of an eye. The startup blogs and keynote speeches encourage young founders to “think big” and “change the world.” Such stories have pushed a thousand entrepreneurs to quit their day jobs or senior years to create “the next Google/Facebook/eBay.”

But nearly all of their efforts to hit a home run end up in failure. I meet many aspiring entrepreneurs who wish to create the next big idea right off the bat, yet struggle to succeed. I believe it was either Ted Williams or Albert Pujols who said, “I step to the plate just trying to get a single, and sometimes I hit a home run.” Our startup ecosystem needs a lot more people swinging for base hits instead of long balls.

How do you hit for a single or double in startups? There are a couple of ways you can dramatically increase your odds of success. First, instead of immediately starting your own business, go work for another company that is at early stages and scaling up. Find a successful entrepreneur and join his or her team to soak up everything you can about what works and what doesn’t. Your learning curve will be vertical for years and you will be much more confident and ready when it is your time.

Once you are ready to start your own business, stick to what you know. If you have spent your career selling insurance, please don’t fool yourself into believing that you can create a social network for teenagers. Take the ten thousand hours that you have spent learning an industry or craft and build a business around that idea. Creating a new business of any kind is very difficult, but learning a new industry at the same time is near impossible.

Remember that a career in this game is long, and opportunities will keep coming. Just because you begin your startup career hitting for singles doesn’t mean that you will never be swinging for the fence. The great thing about successfully building one business is that you will have earned the resources and relationships that can be used to aim even higher the next time you step to the plate. Now, play ball!

Henry Ford didn’t sell automobiles, he created a great customer user experience that resulted in the tremendous success of Ford Motor Company. Whether you deliver products or services, your customer experience determines whether customers buy and more importantly, whether they will buy again.

The cycle of user experience begins with the first impression of your organization. In Malcolm Gladwell‘s book, Blink, he proves that you make snap decisions within a single microsecond at the start of a user experience and keep that portrait in your mind

Malcom Gladwell

despite evidence to the contrary. You have all heard that you only get one chance to make a first impression. More importantly, according to Seth Godin, is not the first impression, but the realization that you do not know when it will occur. This means you must be ready 24/7 with how customers acquire the user experience with your company.

Seth Godin

Your award winning website generates thousands of looks, but a call to your customer service line may tell a different story. Your sales force sets your company apart from the herd by understanding your customer’s needs and making it easy to buy from you. However, if your installers leave the place a mess, or there are mistakes on the bill, or the customers believe the product doesn’t meet expectations set by your sales rep, then you create a bad user experience. According to Godin, the last impression is even more important than the first impression. What you leave them with is what they will remember.

With Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, Angie’s List and even Google/Yahoo/Bing, almost unlimited sites create reviews of your company and can be the source of your first impressions. The only way to maintain a great customer experience reputation is to be authentic. Cincinnati’s startup pioneer Pete Blackshaw (who launched PlanetFeedback in 1999) published Satisfied Customers Tell 3 Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000 and relates that “a company that is authentic is one that is perceived to be real and sincere, consistent and genuine.”

So how do you keep up your authenticity?

First, become a customer of yourself!

• Call your toll-free number and see what you experience.
• Google, Yahoo and Bing yourself to find out who talks about you and what they say.
• Find your Yelp, Angie’s List and other business reputation sites view of you
• Ask for feedback from your customers — through surveys, phone calls, user groups and newsletters.

Next, fix the problems that damage your customer experience.

• Be consistent in your LinkedIn, Facebook and web page messages including your employees personal pages
• Listen for customer issues through Google Alerts and other web watching applications
• Turn lemons into lemonade for your customers – fix problems and make them a raving fan.

Buddy LaRosa

Finally, communicate this to your troops – walk the talk. Actions speak louder than words.

• Empower the frontline to be fearless and take care of the customer (See Ray Attiyah’s new book)
• Treat everyone as a customer: employees, vendors, investors and, of course, customers
• Continually learn from the masters: Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Ray Attiyah, Pete Blackshaw and Buddy LaRosa – never stop learning. As Buddy says “”Good, better, best. Never let it rest, until your good is better and your better is best.”

Visit our website at http://www.cincyentre.com for links to resources.

Bill Cunningham is the founder of OneMorePallet.com and shop foreman for the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association.

Seth Godin’s Great Blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink: http://www.amazon.com/

Ray Attiyah’s Fearless Frontline http://www.amazon.com/

Pete Blackhaw’s Book:  

There is a real paradox blooming in corporate America today. And it is causing personal conflict and anxiety at many levels in organizations. The paradox is associated with an employee’s beliefs and their unwillingness to step up and hold fast to their vision and values in the face of adversity. It is easier or more convenient to back off and go along with the pack. Our stamina for what we believe in fritters away under our absence of courage.

What is startling to me is that even people in firm’s with “leadership reputations” have acquiesced. I asked the question recently to a group of leaders from a principled, growth-oriented company with an outstanding reputation of being a “great place to work.” We wanted to know “why it is difficult to have courage in the workplace.” The response heard most often was that “I am not ready to leave the company or to be put on the back burner. I just can’t trust my boss to respond in the right way.” Such statements tell us fear and lack of passion is a prominent part of the business environment.

Understand this. Without courage, passion is meaningless. And passion moves people to higher levels of commitment. And commitment moves mountains. This is why companies must create work environments where people can have the courage to stand up for what they believe in. What will the company and the leader earn? Honest dialogue, breakthrough ideas, personal commitment and company loyalty just to name a few.

Most managers are not anxious to promote courage as an admired characteristic. Courage may require confrontation. It will bring about uncomfortable situations. Courage looks you straight in the eye and says, “Are you with me?” And most of us say “I have too much at stake to put what I believe on the line.” The lure of the five-hour golf game on the signature course is just too strong.

Leaders must begin the dialogue with their people about “talking and acting courageously.” The first question should be – “what are you really passionate about in your job?” All bosses must clearly understand what turns their people on. What do they really care about? Passion is required in everyone’s work. And it is the leader’s obligation to understand their passion and insist that they pursue it. We must do it for the company, the shareholders and the firm’s future leaders. Encourage them to act on their passion. And their efforts will exceed expectations.

Rewards are important. Yes, the golf game, a beautiful house and the kid’s education are certainly a part of the plan. But, in reality, these “things” will all happen if the work is rewarding. Work with passion and the rewards will flow. It is up to us as leaders to enable this outcome. How can we accomplish this? Start by asking your people to reflect on the following questions:

•            What is it you truly believe? What is it that you are passionate about?

•            Picture your passion. How would you describe it? How has it impacted your life?

•            At what point will you not defend your passion? When will you betray your beliefs? Why does this occur?

Start here. Make this a primer on “passion and courage.” Be prepared for a more emotionally charged conversation. Do not open this door unless you are willing to walk through it. It will change your relationship with your people and will ratchet up the passion and the effort.

I want your response. Contact me at heuertm@miamioh.edu.

Make these ideas of your bucket list for becoming a great startup.

Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Rule

Whether pitching an investor or giving a presentation at a conference, use Guy’s 10/20/30 rule as a guide.  ten slides, twenty minutes and thirty point type. If you can’t tell your story in ten slides, then your story is too complicated and your audience (VC’s or customers) won’t remember much of it. Timewise, don’t plan for more than twenty minutes max for presenting. In investor meetings, expect interruptions and questions throughout your talk (a good sign) – so planning for any longer means you won’t get to finish your story in an hour. Guy suggests using thirty point type as a minimum because a) people with money tend to be older and don’t want to squint to read your presentation, and b) using at least 30 point type limits the amount of information on your slide. After all, you want people to listen to your story, not read your slide.

Steve Jobs mastered the art of storytelling often using very large graphics and one or two words on a slide. His product introductions and press conferences are awesome – check them out at the Apple site or on YouTube if you are looking for a great role model.

Richard Currier’s Message-based Thought Leadership Strategies

Having worked at eight different software companies as CMO or CEO in Silicon Valley, Richard Currier developed “Mastering Market Leadership” workshops to help startups learn how to dominate markets through crisp, clear messaging. A few nuggets of wisdom that keep me on track include:

• · “Own” a laser-focused, precisely targeted market
• · Test your messages:  “How it will be retold, not how well it is told.”
• · Create your message to first be “Different and exciting” then later in the sales cycle move your message towards “Better and safe”
• · Speak in sound bites, use compelling visuals, create metaphors

Mr. Currier believed if your message makes you a thought leader in the industry, you can easily execute your market leadership strategy. He defines Buzz as the “Cacophony of other people talking about your product.”  You do this through short, catchy sound bites that people can repeat. You do this through great imagery giving your customers context of why you are on top of the pile.

GCVA’s Pitch Doctor Mantras: Learn, Practice, Repeat

• LEARN – Greater Cincinnati is rich with resources to help you learn how to tell you story. C-CAP’s entrepreneur boot camp (June 3-4, 2013) addresses the basics of telling your story. Hamilton County Business Center offers Morning Mentoring and Sounding Board to refine your message. The Brandery, UpTech, Cintrifuse all offer “Pitch Doctor” sessions to learn from entrepreneurs who have the battle scars to prove it.
• PRACTICE – Nothing replaces a well oiled story. You would be disappointed at Playhouse in the Park if the cast didn’t fanatically rehearse the show. Steve Jobs spent many hours making the presentation exactly right (of course, he had the budget to do that.) His attention to detail set Apple product introduction apart as the opening of a hit Broadway show.
• REPEAT (often) – The Greater Cincinnati Venture Association offers opportunities to pitch at each of their meetings, and you must clear a screening committee. The committee’s job is to make you look great so you can get funded – so you will get immediate feedback prior to your presentation. Offer to make presentations to your bankers, your board of advisors, your family and well-selected sets of strangers.

Check out our blog at www.cincyentre.com for links to books and resources to help you become the silver-tongued orator that sets you apart from the rest.

RESOURCES FOR GREAT PRESENTATIONS

C-CAP/Queen City Angels Entrepreneur Bootcamp – June 3-4  CLICK HERE FOR BOOTCAMP INFO.

Greater Cincinnati Venture Association: Making Great Presentations